These are interesting excerpts from the new Megha-Lions book, dedicated to Politics and Statesmanship in the Indian state of Meghalaya, by Dilip Mukerjea:

WARRIORSHIP: CREATING AN UNBEATABLE MIND!

Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. 

Do nothing which is of no use. 

Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. 

Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men. 

~ Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin

Fortifying 5 Key Attributes of Your Character to Develop Uncommon Resolve

1. DESIRE: 

It relates to ‘passion’ , where you must desire the winning outcome as if your hair were on fire! 

2. BELIEF: 

Starting with belief in yourself, you must extend it to having belief in your Vision, Mission, and Purpose in Life. 

3. ATTITUDE: 

You must possess and exhibit a positive “can be” and “can do” attitude, and have the skills to inspire and mobilise others with this ‘mindstate’. [NO soul-grinding negativity is permitted!] 

4. DISCIPLINE: 

With relentless dedication, you must be able to sacrifice all distractions and unnecessary attachments and commitments so that you can invest the required daily effort towards your goal. 

5. DETERMINATION: 

You must strive to cultivate an unwavering commitment to never quit: to meet the challenge, to stay the course, and to fnish the job! This is driven by an attitude of “will do” versus “I’ll try”

DISCERNMENT 

This refers to the acuteness of judgement and understanding , and requires you to be conversant with all five modes of thinking (see hereunder). 

In due course, you need to exhibit a sanguine disposition [cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident] when using discernment. 

There’s no such thing as ‘perfect thinking’ and there’s no perfection in ‘mastery’ either. 

To attain a high level of discernment, you must master your ability to recognise things like mind traps, and faulty logic so that you can bypass them and arrive at right thinking. 

This is The Warrior’s Spirit ~ you take nothing for granted , not even your own thoughts and behaviours. 

5 Primary Ways the Mind Thinks

1. DIRECT PERCEPTION:

The induction of schema, data, and information into the mammalian brain and directly perceiving it in a ‘present’-’power of NOW’ mindstate. 

2. ACCESSING MEMORY:

Tapping into the various areas of the brain to retrieve (recall) stored (remembered) information. 

3. ANALYSIS: 

Applying deductive reasoning to arrive at rational conclusions. [Note: Deductive Reasoning is a logical process in which a conclusion is based on the concordance of multiple premises that are generally assumed to be true. Deductive reasoning is sometimes referred to as top-down logic. Its counterpart, Inductive Reasoning, is sometimes referred to as bottom-up logic]. 

4. APPLIED IMAGINATION & CREATING: 

Deliberately activating the imagination for new idea generation, using visual thinking, to create new designs in thought and imagery, formerly not a part of your mental repertoire. Creative Imagining comes alive when you access stored memory and its equations with possible external sources of previously unknown (or unaware) knowledge. This involves a DESIGN MINDSTATE: A design mindstate is not problem-focused, it is solution- focused and action oriented towards creating a preferred future. 

5. DREAMING: 

A series of images, ideas, emotions, sensations, and events occurring involuntarily, often in ‘illogical’ combinations, in the mind during certain stages of sleep.